Just a Little Distraction
by blueinkpen
Summary: Hermione has an interesting plane ride home...
1. Prologe

Prologue

As Hermione joined the check-in line at the airport, she looked down at her clothes with disgust. What had made her think letting Marie, her cousin, pick her outfit for the trip home was a good idea? She was dressed in the last thing she would ever want to wear. "Something girly" as Marie would have said had she been there. The mini skirt was the worst part, riding up with every step. She managed to stop herself from complaining to the elderly lady in line before her by reminding herself of the deal she had made with Marie – she wasn't allowed to say anything about what Hermione was wearing all summer but then her cousin got to pack her second suit case and dress her for the trip home. It was a small price to pay for the freedom her ears had had all summer.

But now she was headed home from Florida and she was meeting the boys at the airport. She was sure they were going to think the sun had fried her brain because she was wearing a shirt that showed her stomach if she moved too much and a skirt that she couldn't even walk around in without flashing someone. Hermione Granger was _not happy_.

She finally got up to the counter but before she could hand her ticket to the girl behind the desk a voice called out from behind her. A very loud voice complementing her apparently very nice ass. She resisted the urge to turn around and make whoever had just said that very very sorry and instead handed her ticket and bags over to the workers.

As she passed through security she did her best to forget her wardrobe problems. After several breathing exercises and some weird neck stretches her efforts paid off. Too well. The lack of worrying about her wardrobe left her mind open to worry about other stressful things, like who she would be sitting next to.

Hermione had a lot of experience with planes. For the most part they were not bad memories; ok food, nice attendants, good seats. The only thing she never got was a sane seatmate. There was the cat lady who somehow managed to talk the flight attendant into letting her cat onto the plane _without_ a carrier, the old man who clipped his toenails every 30 minutes for the entire 8 hour flight, the two-year old who had never flown before and threw up everywhere, and the business man that made passes at her the entire flight. There were more but those were the only ones she allowed herself to remember - the rest were so horrid she had to force herself to supress the memories.

She spent the entire time between security and her seat worrying about it. When she got to 14D, however, 14F was empty and, as time went by, it looked like it was going to stay that way. Hermione watched the airplane door close and let out a sigh of relief. She wasn't going to have a seatmate after all.

It was at that moment she heard it.

"Excuse me, I need to get to my seat"

She looked up, disheartened that there was a very good chance she was once more going to have to share her seat with a crazy person. But instead of looking into the eyes of a stranger about to make her next 8 hours a living hell, she instead looked into the very shocked eyes of Severus Snape.


	2. Chapter 1

"Professor Snape?" Hermione questioned, shocked. The one place she never expected to find him was on a muggle airplane, especially one leaving America. "What are you doing here?"

His face morphed into a sneer as he replied "This may come as a shock to you Miss Granger, but I don't have to tell you the reason behind my every move." With that he shoved his carry-on into the over head compartment and sat down in the seat next her. He then pulled out the SkyMall catalogue located in the chair back in front of him and proceeded to ignore her.

Hermione, however, wasn't done with her professor yet. She stared at him, refusing to look away until he acknowledged her presence. For some reason she couldn't quite figure out, although it probably had to do with her natural curiosity and stubbornness, she wanted him to explain his presence. All this time she had been dreading having to talk to whoever her seat-mate was and now that she wasn't being forced to talk, she wanted to. Finally she gave up waiting for him to notice her stare and opened her own mouth with a threat on the tip of her tongue. "Perhaps, Professor, you might tell me what you are doing on this plane so I don't go and ruin your reputation at the school by telling everyone you were on a muggle plane."

He looked over at her, surprised, but also maybe a little smug. "Miss Granger, you do realize that was a very Slytherin thing for you to say. A very weak threat though since you would never tell. If the Gryffindors found out that you sat next to me they would have to sterilize you before you came into the common room. Who knows what kind of diseases I could be giving you right now?"

Noticing the odd looks of the flight attendant passing by and checking seatbelts, Hermione lowered her voice before responding. "Fine, your right, I wouldn't say anything, but you could still tell me, out of the goodness of your heart and all" She hit herself mentally for saying that. _The kindness of his heart? What heart?_

"Miss Granger, I dare say the summer sun in Florida did you no good. Did you just agree someone besides yourself was right? On top of that you just insinuated that I have a heart; your fellow Gryffindors would go into shock if they heard you. I know you were my apprentice last year," here he lowered his voice to a mutter Hermione could only just hear " and unfortunately will be this year as well due to the Headmaster," his voice rose up again to a more normal tone before continuing "but I did not think you had become this disillusioned due to it."

Had she changed that much? A summer in the sun with her, admittedly girly, cousin and she was un-Gryffindor_?_ Maybe it was a part of growing up, or maybe she was just bored and was looking for something to distract her. Yes, she decided, that must be, why else would be have willingly started a conversation with her dreaded potions teacher? With that decision fresh on her mind, she turned back to her professor with a gleam in her eye she most certainly did not get from her years as a Gryffindor. "Are you saying you don't have a heart?"

Scowling at her ridiculous question, he attempted to put an end to the conversation, "What? Of course I have a heart, I am human after all, now leave me alone to read this magazine; I had no clue muggles buy crap like this." After that he attempted to return to his catalogue but Hermione was nowhere near done yet.

"They don't buy that sort of stuff; well maybe the really rich ones do but normal ones don't. So you are saying you do have a heart and therefore could tell me from the goodness of your heart?"

"Miss Granger, would you please stop pestering me? I really do not plan on sitting here the entire eight hour plane ride home avoiding telling you what I am doing here." This statement was accompanied with a rather pleading look considering it was Snape. That is to say, you wouldn't notice unless you had had him as a professor for 6 years and could read him better than most.

"Well you could just tell me, then we could avoid me annoying you for the whole ride…" She started to laugh as some kid started kicking the back on Snape's chair and his whole face lit up with irritation. As he noticed she had noticed, his expression changed to one of annoyance.

"I have a crazy idea Miss Granger, let us play the Quiet Game. It is a lot of fun and I think you will enjoy it very much."

"Haha, very funny Professor, I was five once, I know all about the quiet game. Oh! Lets play Truth or Dare instead!" Hermione giggled at the look on his face and, having assumed he would not bother responding, was surprised when he opened his mouth.

Scowling what she could only assume was her rather girly giggle he stated, "Miss Granger, please refrain from giggling like the bimbo you have apparently turned into. What on earth makes you think I would want to play some silly game of Truth or Dare?"

Hermione didn't even bother answering; she just turned to face the front of the plane and watched as one of the flight attendants told a passenger the plane would be leaving shortly. She knew that she was being silly by suggesting Truth or Dare but a bimbo?!? She didn't think she had turned into a bimbo: bimbos don't read, do they?


End file.
